The real battle in Warrington was focused on Warrington South where Labour’s Faisal Rashid was hoping to steal the seat from Conservative’s David Mowatt who has held the constituency since 2010.

Faisal Rashid

In 2015, Mr Mowatt secured a majority of 2,750 but the Warrington South Conservatives were in for a shock early on when exit polls put Mr Rashid ahead.

The Labour councillor told the ECHO “The polls have put me at 90% of the vote so I’m feeling even more confident.”

There were worried looks on the faces of the Conservatives in the room during the night’s count at the Birchwood Tennis Centre.

But the exit polls were soon proved to be correct and ex-Warrington Mayor Mr Faisal went on to win Warrington South with 29,994 votes to Mowatt’s 27, 445 - just 2,549 votes in it, with a high turnout of 73%.

Read More

There were audible gasps in the room when Mr Faisal was crowned the winner and a downcast Mr Mowatt wished him the best in looking after the constituency after seven years at the helm.

Mr Faisal told the ECHO: “I’m very excited, very pleased. It was a marginal seat so I was hopeful but it could have gone either way so it was very tough and it’s been a very stressful night. I can’t believe it so I’m really, really happy.”

Read More

This result will prove huge for Labour and is a much needed, but much unexpected gain. His win has put an end to seven years of Conservative leadership in the area. The Lib Dem candidate Bob Barr lagged behind with 3,339 votes.

Helen Jones once again stormed through to take Warrington North increasing her majority by 5,636 votes since 2015, her sixith election victory since 1997. Turnout in the constituency was high at 68% for the constituency.

Helen Jones

Read More

Val Allen, Conservative, came in second with 17,774 votes - making an impressive gain of 4,980. Halfway through the night Val Allen said she was still “hopeful” the Tories could make gains in Warrington but graciously accepted defeat when the vote count came in. Earlier on a Labour source said early indications showed Mrs Allen had failed to gain the majority of the votes in Croft - her home village, losing out to Mrs Jones.

Read More

James Ashington , UKIP, came in third with 1,561 votes beating the Lib Dem candidate Stefan Krizanac. Earlier in the count Mr Krizanac told the ECHO he was hoping for a national Labour victory and said he feared a Conservative majority would make the country even more divided.

Helen Jones said: “I’m very very pleased indeed. This is my sixth general election win in Warrington and it’s a record that I am very proud of. And I’m very grateful to the people of Warrington for electing me that number of times. I will be glad to get back to work.”